Auto save (again)
acecombs_b317c01b8d
Posts: 100
I've seen this question posted before, but I can't find any feature or script for auto-save in the documentation for Daz3d Studio. I also use Zbrush and Modo and both have optional auto-save features that have saved my butt more than once. Photoshop and Illustrator have recovery and you rarely lose work in the Adobe products. I save often but there are times when I'm focused on the work and 3d programs just crash. I've read other forum posts where people say they wouldn't use it--it's optional in Zbrush and Modo and unnoticeable in PS and AI. I find that there isn't anything I'm doing in these programs that I need to cancel the auto-saves. A little bit of patience to get that safety is worth it and it allows me to keep a steady workflow. 3D programs crash--they all do in my experience. Any program that crashes regularly should offer an autosave or recovery option. I've looked at SuperSave but it doesn't seem to offer timed saves, just less overhead when you do save.
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On the subject of auto-save and the like, there should also be a mechanism where it retains a backup copy of the previous save each time you save the scene. Basically, it would rename the previously saved copy of the scene to have a .bak extension or something (i.e. Flying Purple Goose Scene 01.bak), then save out a new copy of the scene under the same name but with the regular extension (i.e. Flying Purple Goose Scene 01.duf). Someone a few months back told me he'd lost a set of fairly complex, customized characters he'd been using for months because he'd only had ONE saved scene with those characters stored in it, and one day the power went off right in the middle of him saving the scene out. DOH!
Acecombs, I support your request for an auto save function, ideally customisable, including frequency and location of autosaves. I also save fairly regularly, however, there are times when a DS crash sets me back an hour or two. It is very frustrating to have to be bothered with thinking about saving when you are in mid-creative flow. Ideally, this feature should be built in to DS itself rather than being an addon; as you say, other professional software has this feature as standard and this has been the case for a long time. DS is behind the times on this issue.
Edit: An even better idea would be to have such good error trapping that DS never completely crashes in the first place and so work is never lost... but I guess that's not going to happen.
If DAZ adds an autosave feature, I hope it works like Microsoft Word by saving to an offstage file from which the work can be recovered; not like mac OS, which automatically saves over the "real" file without regard to whether you really wanted to persist your changes.
Really? That seems a very unfriendly design decision. Yes, auto-save should always be to a secondary copy, not to the actual open file.
As long as the autosave feature is optional then I have no issues with including it. I turn autosave off in every app I use that has it since I want to control the save process and I find it doesn't hinder the creative process one bit.
Have you all checked this out? It has a lot of the same features that you're asking for. I have it, but I must confess, I haven't used it. Mostly because I forgot I had it. But now that I have remembered, I'm going to try it out today just to see if it'll perform as promised.
To be fair, changed data are written to "fresh" disk blocks and supposedly there is a way to recover old versions--as long as you can get the creator app to open the current version without crashing. Apple's bet was that people lose data more often through user error (forgetting to save) than by having a disaster occur. But in a disaster you can lose data either way, so I don't think a half-baked new system that requires users to take extra steps when they don't want to overwrite the original file has enough of an advantage over simply autosaving to an offstage recovery file.
I'd be more worried about suffering data loss from playing with a file to see what would happen and not wanting to save the changes at all.
I'd like to have an option where Daz checks, whenever you start a render, whether the current scene has been saved or not. If it hasn't, it pops up a dialog asking whether you want to save first. Most of my crashes happen in mid-render, and it's only then that I realise I forgot to save the scene before clicking "Render"...
Before I upgraded my system. this was the bain of my existence. And you'd think that I'd have learned after the first dozen times of the render crashing the program that I'd remember to save the scene BEFORE rendering. But no. Sadly, I'd forget, because "surely this one change to the scene isn't going to cause a strain on the system..."
THIS (chris-2599934's suggestion) is definitely needed as a feature that should to be added to DS. I'd totally support it, if you wanted to open a technical support ticket. https://www.daz3d.com/help/help-contact-us Heck, I might pester the devs directly for it. Lol.
Please please pester them if you have direct access, this is an important issue.
As long as there is an option to disable all prompts to save, sure.
Pestering is rarely productive - and bear in mind that the developers will in all probability be working on feature lists drawn up by or in consultation with marketing.
I totally agree. The proper channel would be to submit a ticket for this feature. I'd only "pester" the devs if it came up in conversation. Now, marketing on the other hand.... Lol.
"Pester", "suggest", "cajole", whatever. As long as they get the message.
"Suggest" or "Request" are acceptable; these terms do not invoke an emotional response; "Pester" and "Cajole" indicate emotional manipulation of some form. When presented respectfully, the ideas can be better considered on their merits.
Also a plate of cookies will not go amiss.
An Auto-Save would be awesome, but what I would love more is a proper UNDO. I read here, somehwere that the memory constraints keep that from being possible, but there are so many times I want to undo something and it skips right past the action I want to undo.
Not very useful. And some operations don't have an undo....option at all.
And don't foget, at least crashes cause the last stage of the render to be saved so in that temp folder is your in-progress render.
Once you start the NEXT render, it's overwritten so get it out of there ASAP.
That feature has saved me numerous times.
Yeah, an undo would be nice, but I can see the issue with memory. Behavior is learned and I have learned to save as often as possible and to save before making changes which is why I often have many versions of the same project scene saved, in DS and in the many other apps I use..
I made a readable/editable source CC BY 3.0 licensed, incremental auto save script, and you can find it here, where updates may be posted if I make any:
you can read about the script and download it from this thread.
I'd just like to have a revert-to-saved option, instead of the wonky cycle of reopening the same file, but first being prompted if I'd like to save (over the very same file I'm attempting to revert to by reopening it).
Add to this, that when I do save as, I shouldn't have to carpel-tunnel-click the file name, it should be autopopulated in the save field already, so I can easily update the version number (like we did back in ye old days), as with the other 99% of applications out there.